October 22nd, 2007 admin
This is the kind of story that warms my heart. Earlier this year, many prominent video game journalists were trumpeting Madden 08 as a major return to form for the franchise. That turned out to be total BS, and the game sucks. I can’t believe anyone would put their reputation on the line and claim that the game was going to be good, but whatever. I rented the game assuming it would suck, and suck it did.
Turns out I’m not the only one tired of EA pulling this crap and releasing junk games. This year’s Madden sales were down from 1.19 million last year to .619 million this year - a 48% decrease.
That’s an INCREDIBLE drop for Madden, EA’s cash cow. Hopefully it’s enough to knock some sense into EA. They need some Bill Belichick humble pie - they’re looking a little like Sony cica 2005 right now.
BTW, EA, I am still waiting for the promised next-gen graphics (above). I watched the 2005 NFL draft and waited for that commercial. It’s time for you to deliver.
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Posted in Commentary, News | 6 views
October 16th, 2007 admin
The Cat Helmet edition of Halo is the B&M’s DO NOT WANT of the year. This is funny/annoying for several different reasons.
First, the lady at my local Gamestop hounded the hell out of me to order the cat helmet. I repeatedly told her that there would be plenty of copies of Halo 3 to go around and that I wasn’t giving them a zero interest short term loan of $20 to hold a copy of a high volume commodity.
Finally, in February, she told me that Gamestop corporate was cutting off pre-orders and that if I wanted one, I had to pre-order it NOW. I finally caved, remembering that you can always cancel pre-orders and get your money back.
Then, Circuit City had a price mistake and was selling it for $99 with free shipping. I ordered it.
Then what to do? Wait 10 business days to get my Halo on or buy it at Gamestop? Turns out that I turned the table on those GS bastards. I picked up my cat helmet at midnight and then returned the later arriving copy 2 weeks later. Honestly, I figured Gamestop would be glad to get another copy of this sought after item to sell. I was going to use the $130 towards other pre-orders anyway, so everybody wins. Then I noticed that they had a helmet sitting behind the counter. Turns out that there is a huge glut of these $130 monstrosities taking up valuable shelf space at B&Ms nationwide. Gamestop is opening copies in every store to entice people to buy them.
Yesterday Amazon.com was selling the Legendary edition for $110 with free shipping.
What a disaster! They didn’t have enough Bioshock CEs to fulfill customer pre-orders, but the Legendary editions are all over the place. Maybe it’s time to actually follow through with promises and actually make some items pre-order only. Greed is bad for business. Anyone who has watched NBC’s Deal or No Deal could tell you that.
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Posted in Commentary | 6 views
October 9th, 2007 admin
No, I am not sure why, but Microsoft is quietly getting pwned by Sony’s PSN downloadable games. Sure, the online multiplayer is spotty at best, but man, they have much better titles. Mortal Kombat 2 (best of the series), Rampart (serious arcade gem), Super Stardust HD, Calling All Cars, and now Everyday Shooter. At this rate the PS3 will be worth having just for the PSN games. You can keep you stupid ass Uno, M$. I do like Catan, though. Maybe some more Euro Games?
Anyway, Everyday Shooter is by all accounts the cat’s ass. It’s available Thursday for $10 and about 15 controller clicks. Yes, I will complain about the PSN’s purchase process until they fix it.
Posted in Commentary | 7 views
October 9th, 2007 admin
Yesterday I was interested for about 5 minutes in Kane and Lynch because it had a multiplayer mode that sounded as if it might not suck. Basically, you are on an eight man team and have to rob a bank. Those who die become police officers. Nifty, I think.
Turns out that this game has NO ONLINE MULTIPLAYER. Proving once again that people who MAKE games (or at least those who have the $$$ and make the decisions) do not PLAY games.
Come on, folks. Without Live support this game is DOA. Might as well get the coffin out now. Do not want.
Posted in Commentary | 3 views